The Shock/Trauma Research Center at the UMKC School of Medicine brings clinicians and scientists together to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical care. Investigators conduct basic and applied research on the mechanisms involved in tissue injury and organ failure in shock and on the development of new therapeutic intervention strategies to effectively treat the injured and diseased patients.

Nilofer Qureshi, Ph.D., professor of biomedical sciences and internationally renowned for her research on septic shock, is director of the Center. One of the few such centers in the Midwest, it is adjacent to Truman Medical Center, the largest Level I trauma center in Western Missouri. Nearly 1,000 patients per year are admitted to the TMC trauma center, approximately 40% with gunshot or knife wounds, and 20% with hemorrhagic shock and sepsis/shock. The Center is ideally suited to develop innovative techniques to treat shock based on proteasome modulators, which can be readily transferred to improve the care of septic civilians in the community, or septic wounded soldiers on the battlefield.

Several research investigators with diverse areas of expertise related to shock, including molecular biology, chemistry, biochemistry, surgery and models of septic shock conduct research at the Center. Clinical research activities involve investigators from the UMKC School of Medicine’s Departments of Biomedical Science and Emergency Medicine, and the Level 1 trauma center of TMC Hospital Hill. The Shock/Trauma Research Center will also create a sepsis and infectious disease focus group involving Children’s Mercy Hospital and Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City.

Dr. David C. Morrison and Dr. Charles Van Way III pioneered the Shock/Trauma Research Center and are presently appointed as Emeritus Professors.